This year's B.R.E.A.D. NEHEMIAH ACTION on Monday, May 12th, will push for access to mental healthcare and a more welcoming community! Will you join 4,000 people at the Nehemiah Action to stand together for justice? Date/Time: Monday, May 12th, 6:45 p.m. (doors open: 6:00 p.m.) Location: Celeste Center, 717 E. 17th Ave, 43211, Ohio Expo Center (State Fairgrounds) For more information about Building Responsibility Equality And Dignity (B.R.E.A.D. Organization), see facebook.com/BreadOrganization. Please RSVP to Ryan Agnew by May 11th at agnew.ryan@gmail.com.

This past year, Columbus based artists Clare Gatto and Kara Gut have been producing work using the Instant Camera as their primary medium of choice, interested in its obsolescence due to societies ongoing quest for convenience. Both artists have been examining their surroundings through the lens of a disposable camera, creating harsh vignettes with the aid of the built in flash, seeking to dramatize the fleeting moments that, at first glance, one might consider mundane. Likewise, Gaelen Hill has been consciously choosing to take snapshots with his iPhone camera trying to capture events within the urban landscape that speak to the construction involved in a painting and drawing process. All three artists attempting to present a moment that is free from any predispositions towards the subject or object in focus. Together, we have curated and created an exhibition that delves into the subjectivity of the snapshot.

Workshop registration: $15In this workshop participants will learn how to utilize sound & listening into their meditation practices for a deeper engagement with their environment. Sound has been proven to stimulate the body as well as provide a deeper “grounding” effect than classic silent meditation. Participants will get an introductory knowledge of sound & listening meditations as well as some traditional & experimental meditation practice. Please wear comfortable clothing & be aware that we will be sitting and moving for extended durations. No experience in meditation or music necessary.

About the instructor: C. Lavender is a sound artist and healer based in upstate New York. She is currently receiving certification in Sound Healing and is a Deep Listening ® certificate candidate. She is also a Reiki II practitioner & apprenticing herbalist interested in bringing healing methodologies into the world of sound art and experimental music.

This class is designed for the dancer with some mastery of Levels One & Two who feels ready to develop her dance into something greater. Teacher permission is required to attend. Please contact angienever@gmail.comwith any inquiries.Ongoing, most Sundays from 6:00 - 7:00 PM. $15 drop in, $60 three class pass. Sacred Shimmy updates here.

Queer Yoga is Columbus's first queer-focused yoga class that offers professional yoga instruction in a designated Safe(r) Space. We endeavor to cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance and community in all we do, from sun salutations to post-yoga snack time. Whether you are new to yoga, or you can complete a headstand without assistance, you will find something to challenge and deepen your practice.

Class fees are $6 for ALL participants. Everyone is welcome. Bring a mat.

Participants are welcome to practice any form of meditation or quiet practice they feel comfortable with. You are invited to share their techniques and the experience of getting to know themselves with awareness. Two 20 minute sessions will be followed by tea. There is no cost. Donations are welcome.

Seth's reflection for this month:

Our April meditation coincides with Mothers Day. It is an opportunity to celebrate our mothers, whether living or dead, and to practice the deepest form of care-taking exemplified by maternal love.

In one of the oldest Buddhist scriptures, the Metta Sutta (teaching on loving-kindness), the selfless power of the mother's love is offered as a model:

"Even as a mother, at risk of her life, watches over and protects her only child, so too, with a boundless mind, should one cherish all living things - suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around, without limit."

We should keep in mind that this loving-kindness is not sacrificial love. Often mothers are destructively expected to set aside their own happiness for the benefit of children and spouses. In contrast, this love is "without limit" and so must include oneself. Paradoxically, we must learn to risk our life to cherish our life.

This protective love is fierce, in that it can carry "a heartfelt and powerful intensity." It is also not limited to the human, it does not require civilization to learn. Thus, it is fierce in that it is feral, untamed (fierce and feral share the Latin rootferus).

The practice of fierce kindness, develops in us the capacity to speak truth even when the truth is not welcome. It is an intense nurturing, uninhibited kindness, protectiveness without a separation between victim and perpetrator. It is vulnerable and self-reliant.

I'm still learning how to embody this. Let's teach each other how to live this way together.

Class fee: $35 ($42 if you would like to make a marimba, $50 if you would like to make a wood plank electronic guitar)

Benjamin Miller’s Workshop informs students on the basic principal of sound vibration by building a variety of homemade musical instruments. Using books by Bart Hopkins from www.windworld.com, he helps attendees understand and build Rubber-band Guitars, Straw Oboes, Bobby Pin Marimbas, PVC flutes, Tin Can Drum Sets, Rice Maracas, various Percussion Mallets, 6-string Wood Plank Guitars, and more. Miller engages discussion on Composition, Open-ended Improvisation and Intuitive Listening. Attendees, Musicians and non-Musicians of All Ages, have Fun creating new sounds and recording them for posterity. Miller also shares his active and diverse musical background over the past four decades.